De små førerløse og fjernbetjente fly sættes ind i en fortvivlet indsats mod stadig mere sofistikerede bander af svært bevæbnede krybskytter, som nedslagter Afrikas sidste næsehorn og Asiens sidste tigre.
Controlled via a tablet computer, the small autonomous aircraft will photograph poachers (krybskytter) and track animals via smart radio tags.
The World Wildlife Fund added the 5 million US dollar grant from Google would also fund software that could map where poachers strike.
And it was developing a mobile DNA sampling kit to match body parts with animals.
The WWF said poaching and trafficking of body parts was having a devastating effect on the wild populations of some species, setting back decades long conservation efforts.
In five years the number of rhinos killed in South Africa has risen from 13 to 588 yearly.
WWF president Carter Roberts said: “We face an unprecedented poaching crisis. The killings are way up”.
“We need solutions that are as sophisticated as the threats we face. This pushes the envelope in the fight against wildlife crime,” noted he according to BBC.
Google gave the WWF the cash as part of its Global Impact Award programme.
